Green On Green

California Senator Dianne Feinstein supports solar power; just not in the scenic desert where the sun is shining.  Actual legislation is not necessary - her threat to tie the proposed site up in regulatory knots has scotched some projects.

Sen. Feinstein has a not-crazy "a deal's a deal" explanation:

For Mrs. Feinstein, creation of the Mojave national monuments would make good on a promise by the government a decade ago to protect desert land donated by an environmental group that had acquired the property from the Catellus Development Corporation.

“The Catellus lands were purchased with nearly $45 million in private funds and $18 million in federal funds and donated to the federal government for the purpose of conservation, and that commitment must be upheld. Period,” Mrs. Feinstein said in a statement.

The federal government made a competing commitment in 2005, though, when President George W. Bush ordered that renewable energy production be accelerated on public lands, including the Catellus holdings. The Obama administration is trying to balance conservation demands with its goal of radically increasing solar and wind generation by identifying areas suitable for large-scale projects across the West.

The most absurd quote in the Times piece comes from the NIMBY champion, Robert Kennedy:

“This is arguably the best solar land in the world, and Senator Feinstein shouldn’t be allowed to take this land off the table without a proper and scientific environmental review,” said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the environmentalist and a partner with a venture capital firm that invested in a solar developer called BrightSource Energy. In September, BrightSource canceled a large project in the monument area.

Maybe we could put a solar farm in Nantucket.

Comments

[clarice]

That's where I'd put it.

[Old Lurker]

Thanks a lot, C! And I will put a cell phone monopole on your beach!

Anyway, my view looks out the other way.

Seriously, following the cape wind fiasco over the years has been a hoot as the MA libs have twisted onto themselves to try to kill the thing.

[Old Lurker]

LUN is a real economic downer from AT. Read at your own risk.

[Danube of Thought]

Minus 21 at Ras today (25/46).

[PD]

Ras -21, lowest ever.

[matt]

we've been dealing with Feinsteins hypocrisy for 20 years. Her husband was the primary beneficiary on a mining rights clause she put into a bill @ 18 months ago to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

She's also the one who refused to close the gay bath houses when she was mayor of San Francisco, leading to the first major outbreak and explosion of HIV/AIDS cases in the world.

She's our very own Pol Pot.

[hit and run]

The line has been crossed.

Forty-six percent (46%) Strongly Disapprove
...
Overall, 44% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance.

[NK]

Green on Green fratricide, outstanding.

Barry O -21%, outstanding.

3rd Quarter GDP significantly revised down to 2.2%, How's that stimulus working out?

People may be waking up to the nightmare that is Washington. After the midterm election tidal wave, Barry O will reprise Jimmah Cahta, by lecturing us all to get over our inordinate fear of "Black Men" and our irrational resistance to turning over the health care and energy markets to his control. Epic 'tude.

Merry Christmas, and God bless us all, everyone.

[Rick Ballard]

Does it matter where the "solution" to an imaginary "problem" is placed? How about a robust debate upon the best location for the headquarters complex for the Defense Against Joint Martian/Venusian Invasion instead?

OL's link on deflation is rather more germane to reality. The Dems have bet everything upon this being a garden variety recession, with a "normal" recovery lifting spirits and the economy to the point where the Muddle will start dropping their heads back into the feed bag by Q2 '10. Accelerating default rates, especially on "good" 80/20/700 mortgages suggest that Berkowitz's hypothesis is more tenable than the "normal" scenario. Zombietimes isn't going to end this year - or next year either.

[Elliott]

On this day in history...

[eddiebear]

I noticed that RFK Jr is upset that his company lost out on a windfarm money making scam opportunity.

[narciso]

This certainly does qualify, as 'a best end of civilization' moment no

[Jane]

I'm not sure we can hold out until the 2010 election. They are literally turning this government into a dictatorship - and we have to stop it.

[Jim Ryan]

an environmentalist

That word has no meaning. It may have some emotive content, but no genuine meaning.

[Old Lurker]

I keep mentioning, Rick, the coming disaster in loans on commercial real estate. With national values of office and shopping center assets off 54% from their peaks, those former 80% loans have nowhere to go and there are no empty chairs around the table of musical chairs. The dollar values involved dwarf the sub prime home loans that started the who break in the dam.

Some of my pals (having more guts than I), have been buying up the loans at cents on the dollar which they call "future deeds".

[Old Lurker]

Hey Jim...my morning radio guy (Chris Plant) has taken up your "Kleptocrat" label today. He did not credit you however.

What was the final snow total in C'ville?

[Ignatz]

Rick and OL (and NK),

I must confess my bouncing economy theory is resting on history and faith rather than statistics and current conditions more and more every day.

matt,
Do you have a link for Feinstein's Mojave mining shenanigans? I remember reading about some dirty land swap deal with a gold mining company many years ago when she first got involved in establishing the Mojave Monument.

[Extraneus]

Wow. Look at that health care bounce.

[Neo]

These clowns in DC just don't get it.

Most Americans thought they sent a message months ago, but these clown are in such a "bubble" that they don't know that their political "deafness" has an electoral tsunami is headed their way.

[PD]

I noticed that RFK Jr is upset that his company lost out on a windfarm money making scam opportunity.

Profits are evil only when they're someone else's.

[Mike Myers]

Feinstein may have a point on "a deal is a deal". But I think one ought to probe a little further as to just what Catellus got in exchange for "donating" the land to an environmental foundation. What you have here is an endless line of varying sorts of governmental/environmental extortion. Catellus Development by the way is a descendant of the Southern Pacific Railroad.
Remember all the land that the 1860's federal government gave to railroad companies to induce them to build railroads. Well a lot of that land became very valuable 100 or so years later; and when the railroad business went through ups and downs, the property managing units of the railroads usually did okay.

[centralcal]

From Politico and Michelle Malkin - we have a new Republican in the House.

Politico reports that Alabama Democrat Rep. Parker Griffith will switch parties today. He’s a defender of grass-roots activists who protested at town halls over the summer and a cancer doctor who passionately opposes a government health care takeover.

Maybe some more will decide to "convert." Don't have to make all of our gains at the ballot box.

[Fritz]

Looks like Pelosi has one less lemming

Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Alabama, will announce today that he’s switching parties to become a Republican

[Danube of Thought]

I will be fascinated to see how this all plays out over the next two years or so. I'm beginning to think the GOP may actually take the House in 201, and if they do perhaps they can at least partially derail this nightmare by declining to appropriate funds to implement various portions of it--I just don't know. It is very hard to believe this is happening in and to our country.

Quinnipiac today has approval of the Reid bill at 36%. To pass such sweeping legislation in the face of such opposition is simply insane. I'm appalled...

[bunky]

.... a nation of beggars

[Old Lurker]

FDR is beaming in delight at what has sprung from the seeds he planted. Oh what he could have achieved with this congress, this media, and this educational system.

[centralcal]

The liberal radicals are focused laser like on achieving their ends. They will gladly sacrifice losing some elections (temporarily, to their thinking); some old members/friends. They have one goal - permanent power - and they are marching strongly forward in attaining it. They are taking the long view and working swiftly grab power in every area while they can.

[narciso]

Well it's the healthcare, stimulus, and Afghanistan slalom

[bunky]

Anybody notice the commie senator got 10 billion for community health clinics? Sounds like ACORN fire bases.

[anduril]

U.S. unemployment is so bad right now that even the unemployment benefits system has broken down.

Already, fully half of state unemployment benefit programs have already run out of funds. 80% could be broke within two years.

Alright, already! Anyway, the Dems will rue this bill. Their focus on unemployment will not change the situation.

[anduril]

70% Of The Q3 GDP Growth Was Cash For Clunkers from Clusterstock by Vincent Fernando

Today's downward revision is far worse than it first appears. While third quarter GDP was revised down by a 0.6% (2.2% vs. 2.8% previously), the contribution from motor vehicle output (which was massively stimulated by Cash for Clunkers in a one-off fashion) remains enormous.

[anduril]

And this: "More Contraction: NY Fed Says Regional Economy Shriveled In November." That's NY state, NYC and New Jersey. That's a big chunk of the economy.

[rse]

I was thinking Elliott's this day in history link was to Gen McAuliffe and Bastogne.

Maybe that should be our retort to Reid: "Nuts!" to the idea of surrender.

[MarkJ]

Danube,

"Quinnipiac today has approval of the Reid bill at 36%. To pass such sweeping legislation in the face of such opposition is simply insane."

True, but in ReidWorld you're not insane if you don't believeyou're insane. Indeed, Fast Harry Reid subscribes to "Costanza's Maxim":

"It's not a lie, if you believe it."

[bunky]

It's not insane, it's tactics. Once you get people addicted they vote for you. Line up the cattle trucks.

[narciso]

Remember this was the guy played by the serious Smothers brother in Casino, the gambling commissioner on the take, who symbolically chose to deny Frank Rosenthal's license. As for Griffith, with an 85% voting
record with the Dems, he thought he could catch a lifeboat, never look a gift horse in the mouth I guess.

[bunky]

Is Tom Delay ever going to be tried?

[chris]

Environmentalist-emphasis on the mental.

Ran a quick calculation. 10 billion for VT
Works ou to $17,000 per citizen, give or take.
Staggering.

[PaulL]

Fantastic Rasmussen numbers. Interestingly, Rasmussen himself said, in the middle of November, that he did not think Obama's numbers would change much by the end of the year.

[Ignatz]

I believe it's $10 billion nationwide Chris.
Apparently Bernie is a national socialist.

[bunky]

Yeah it was nationwide. Sorry!

[Jack is Back!]

I don't know about the Repubs taking the house in 2010. They need something more than the Once as a catalyst. Even the Tea Party people are still skeptical of Steele and his RNCC and RSCC. So am I partially. The -21% PAI will continue to oscillate but mainly upward.

I am in a snarky email battle with some big time, retired ex-businessmen, ex-vets who are still feeling "tingles up their legs" about Obama. People who I would never think had a democrat party bone in their bodies. And they are super-seniors. FDR effect is possible but only one of them is a WW2 vet, the rest are Korea and VN vets. They even use the term right-wingers, chicken hawks, religious nuts, racists, etc. Even my Belgian father-in-law, a banker, a Christian Democrat (that's conservative in Europe), clear thinker can't accept the fact that The Once is a fraud and not the person he thought he was during the campaign.

There are still pockets of resistance to sanity.

Ras at the LUN

[MilitantBanana]

I'm not sure we can hold out until the 2010 election. They are literally turning this government into a dictatorship - and we have to stop it.

I am with you there Jane. These guys know EXACTLY what they are doing and do not care what "We The People" need or even want.

Look at what is going on here - they are taking the USA on the quick downhill slide to Oblivion every way they can. We are witnessing the death of the World's Lone Super Power to make room for a World Government.

Think I am crazy? Anyone able to make sense of the totally irrational moves by those in Power now (Republican and Democrat)? They NEED to have CRISES that will suspend rational thought by the "great unwashed" and allow a complete takeover.

No doubt these are steps in the Grander Scheme.

Keep your powder dry, boys and girls!

[Neo]

Good news .. a peer-reviewed study says that we are already fighting global warming ..

“My findings do not agree with the climate models that conventionally thought that greenhouse gases, mainly CO2, are the major culprits for the global warming seen in the late 20th century,” Lu said. “Instead, the observed data show that CFCs conspiring with cosmic rays most likely caused both the Antarctic ozone hole and global warming. These findings are totally unexpected and striking, as I was focused on studying the mechanism for the formation of the ozone hole, rather than global warming.”
His conclusions are based on observations that from 1950 up to now, the climate in the Arctic and Antarctic atmospheres has been completely controlled by CFCs and cosmic rays, with no CO2 impact.

.. the bad news, the “scientists” were all wrong.

[Extraneus]

From Peter Weiner, linked by Instapundit:

This health-care bill shouldn’t be seen in isolation. It’s part of a train of events that include the stimulus package, the omnibus spending bill (complete with some 8,500 earmarks), and a record-sized budget. In addition, as Jim Manzi points out in the new issue of National Affairs:

[Under Obama] the federal government has also intervened aggressively in both the financial and industrial sectors of the economy in order to produce specific desired outcomes for particular corporations. It has nationalized America’s largest auto company (General Motors) and intervened in the bankruptcy proceedings of the third-largest auto company (Chrysler), privileging labor unions at the expense of bondholders. It has, in effect, nationalized what was America’s largest insurance company (American International Group) and largest bank (Citigroup), and appears to have exerted extra-legal financial pressure on what was the second-largest bank (Bank of America) to get it to purchase the ­country’s largest securities company (Merrill Lynch). The implicit government guarantees provided to home-loan giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been called in, and the federal government is now the largest de facto lender in the residential real-estate market. The government has selected the CEOs and is setting compensation at major automotive and financial companies across the country. On top of these interventions in finance and commerce, the administration and congressional Democrats are also pursuing both a new climate and energy strategy and large-scale health-care reform. Their agenda would place the government at the center of these two huge sectors of the economy…

[peter]

After hearing about Harry Reid's 1 AM massacre, I felt the same way I did on only a few occasions in my life--the day JFK was shot, the day our helicopters crashed in the desert during the Carter administration, and the day the Space Shuttle blew up. Something was seriously wrong, on each of those occasions. We so need someone to express the outrage. Why are the Republicans leaving it up to past his prime McCain to make the case?

[Danube of Thought]

I'm getting more intrigued by Prof. Epsteion's constitutional analysis suggesting that the bill's constraints on the insurers' profits is impermissible rate-making. If the SCt agrees, it would most likely invalidate the entire bill pending some sort of amendment to establish an appropriate rate-regulating body.

By the time such a ruling were rendered, however, the Dems would no longer have a sufficient senate majority to enact it. So perhaps there is hope in that direction.

[Danube of Thought]

*Epstein*

[PaulL]

How does a Constitutional challenge happen? What's the process in a case like this and the timeline?

[Jane]

A small business owner called Rush today with the following idea:

Every small business owner lays off 50% of the work force. And they tell the administration they will not rehire anyone until the administration starts doing what they want.

He was a hell of a lot more compelling than I am in this message. It was an idea worth considering.

[Neo]

Now for something completely different ...

WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a $290 million judgment against Microsoft Corp. and issued an injunction that will prevent the sale of its popular Word software.

[Extraneus]

Rick Ballard suggested something along those lines a long time ago, with the added feature that business owners should identify the Obama voters before deciding who to let go.

Only fair, after all.

[Chris]

Thanks

[Jane]

Oh I really like that. Someone should email Rush.

[Janet]

I just hung up from my daily call to my 2 Virginia Senators. Asked them..."What did we get?"...Nebraska doesn't have to pay Medicaid. Penn., NY, and Flor. get to keep Medicare Advantage. Vt. gets 10 billion.
What do we get? Huh? What do we GET!?
The Webb office finally answered...nothing.

[Jim Ryan]

OL, snow was 2' deep by my measurement. This city is messed up, I guess for lack of salt.

Chris Plant can have the "kleptocrat" riff and run with the ball! I sure didn't invent it.

[matt]

"Hi;

This is Barry from DC...I'd like to give a big shout out to all my peeps in tha hood...."

what a maroon.

[cathyf]

I'm getting more intrigued by Prof. Epsteion's constitutional analysis suggesting that the bill's constraints on the insurers' profits is impermissible rate-making. If the SCt agrees, it would most likely invalidate the entire bill pending some sort of amendment to establish an appropriate rate-regulating body.

Ok, that's an intriguing notion -- that it would fail because Congress did not establish a bureacracy with processes, public hearings, yada yada ya.

I'm also kind of intrigued by the legal wording and how it would apply to employer-sponsored plans which self-insure. According to this article, in 2008 55% of all workers covered by health insurance were covered by a self-insured plan.

In a self-insured plan, instead of purchasing health insurance from an insurance company and paying the insurer a per-employee premium, the employer acts as its own insurer. In the simplest form, the employer uses the money that it would have paid the insurance company and instead directly pays health care claims to providers. Self-insured plans often contract with an insurance company or other third party to administer the plan, but the employer bears the risk associated with offering health benefits.

Ok, so over half of the population is covered by plans that don't have premiums, or, more precisely, have premiums which are easily-manipulated accounting fictions.

Back when we left South Carolina, my husband's employer cancelled our health insurance for the last 3 months, refunded our already-collected premium money, and forced us to pay COBRA. If this had been an employer who contracted with an insurance company for insurance, this would have been a violation of federal law. Since the employer self-insured, it was not.

This makes me wonder -- what sort of weird mess have these bozos made? Have they passed a law which does not apply to over half of the people who have insurance?

[Janet]

...might add that I'm not really looking to "get" anything from the Federal Govt..I just thought maybe I could start some Dem. on Dem. bickering.

[Clarice]

Yoo Hoo , Jane--a conservative legal group is considering suing re the bill on the ground that mandating individuals to carry health insurance is unconstitutional and not covered by the Commerce Clause.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/58900

I'm sure such a thing was not intended by the founders--but that clause has been stretched more than MOs spanx by the courts/

Glad you find Eppstein's point intriguing DoT. I think it's well argued.

[rse]

cathy f-

My Saturday reading of the MA, which was cursory, is that they assume self insured companies deny claims for economic reasons and to aid the bottom line. The feds now want the right to audit such claim denials for self insured companies.

That's why I said the MA was hostile to the concept of self insurance.

Your insurance analysis has been outstanding by the way.

[rse]

Cathy-

Looked back at my notes and just reread the pertinent pages of the MA.

The provisions on self insured plans and the reports they now want are on pages 34-36.

It reads to me like they're gathering info to restrict the ability to self insure fairly quickly after the bill goes into effect. Those descriptions of what they're examining meet my definition of being in a regulator's line of sight.

[PD]

Obama appoints new Czar!

News has just been released that President Barack Obama has appointed the embattled and disgraced climate scientologist, Michael Mann, as the latest addition to his administration's long list of Czars. Sources close to the story have revealed that Michael Mann resigned his position at Penn State University late yesterday afternoon in order to become President Obama's Czar for Daily Presidential Tracking Polls.

[centralcal]

lol, PD!

[Clarice]

Very good!

Jane--check the note I left you on the trenches thread.

[Frau Dingsda]

Feinstein needs to be reminded that her fair city flushes its toilets with *all* the water from Hetch Hetchy, a natural wonder, the twin to Yosemite Valley. The reservoir is part of Frisco's municipal water system and supplies 85% of the "drinking" water. Since 1923, the leeches, er, carpheads have held a wonder of nature captive. (Leeches can be beneficial.)

RFK is a parasite.

"Most Americans thought they sent a message months ago..."
Yes, we did, but most of the guilty were not in town for the confrontation. It seems the only place it sank in was during the summer town hall meetings. Up close and personal really hit them! Pelosi was incensed when Code Pink camped outside her house and sat in her trees.

Janet, I always admire your actions

[Thomas Collins]

Obama's tracking polls are beginning to resemble a hockey stick turned in the opposite direction from the Global Climate Scientologists' hockey stick.

[Rick Ballard]

TC,

That's why Zero is appointing Mann (re PD comment).

Hide the Decline!!!

[glasater]

Paterson, Bloomberg and other NY pols:Health care bill is perscription for disaster

What does Zero have against that state?

[Jim Miller]

". . . a solar farm in Nantucket", and a wind farm in the Mojave. What could be fairer?

(I'll leave it to Robert Kennedy, Jr. and Feinstein's husband to figure out who pays for which project.)

[glasater]

From Senate testimony by Dr. David Deming
University of Oklahoma...."In 1999, Michael Mann and his colleagues published a reconstruction of past temperature in which the MWP simply vanished."

[glasater]

McMaster To Organize Group Of State Attorneys
General To Review Senate Health Care Bill

.pdf warning....

[Old Lurker]

"...more than MOs spanx..."

OK who's the jokster? No sooner had you all made fun of my innocent question about what Spanx are, than I received a catalog for them in the mail. Unfortunately it arrived the same day the Victoria's Secret Catalog arrived. They are different.

[Clarice]

Now the states would have standing in a proper constitutional challenge.

[Jane]

Yoo Hoo , Jane--a conservative legal group is considering suing re the bill on the ground that mandating individuals to carry health insurance is unconstitutional and not covered by the Commerce Clause.

Clarice,

I saw that. Now the real question is if they can't do it before it becomes law.

[Clarice]

WH Christmas Tree decorations by chi chi (certainly high priced ) designer --during tome of massive recession and unemployment--feature mao. a transvestite and the Won'd face pasted onto Mt Rushmore.

http://biggovernment.com/2009/12/22/transvestites-mao-and-obama-decorate-white-house-christmas-tree/#more-50890>Battle stations!

[Old Lurker]

rse, I serve on a board that moved our insurance in-house three years ago. We outsourced the claims processing precisely so we would not have fingerprints on the claims of our employees, and so we could achieve the pre-negotiated service costs from the providers. I will say the savings have been small compared to the risks I thought we were taking, even after hedging those risks with reinsurance etc.

But here's where Cathy's observations really come in: With the auditing and form filing you describe above, our costs will go up and the diversion of our managers' time will go up. Add to that Cathy's pretty sound guess about the direction of the negotiated service costs, and I can promise you that my argument that being in the insurance business is not smart for us will carry the day next time. So look for us to exit self insurance at the end of our annual cycle in the spring. It's a no brainer.

[Clarice]

I suppose they can seek injunctive relief against the collection of fines or institution of criminal proceedings against anyone who refuses to buy the insurance, Jane.

[Janet]

OL, Spanx! Too funny! What a coincidence. On my Facebook site I always have ads for old singers, bipolar problems, snoring, and weight loss. Not sure what they are hinting at...but I'm uncomfortable that they know me so well! Damn busybodies!

[Jane]

None of that happens until 2014 Clarice. There must be a mechanism. I know Jim DeMint is addressing the constitutionality in some format (that I don't understand) on the Senate floor.

Boy you should see how hot under the collar Dick is about all of this. It's an amazing transformation.

[Clarice]

They can begin the suit immediately and if it is delayed seek injunctive relief I suppose.

Did you see this from insty?
Legal insurrection reports Jane Hamsher has gone on Fox to attack the bill--

Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Biggest Defection of The Day (That You Never Heard About)
Forget the junior Congressman from Alabama who is defecting to the Republicans. The big defection of the day was the decision by Jane Hamsher, proprietor of the left-wing Firedoglake group blog and organizer of the Hadassah Lieberman boycott, to appear on Fox News to call for the Democratic health care proposals to be defeated.

While Hamsher is ultra-liberal, she points out that the Senate bill will lead to increased costs on the middle class. Sure, Hamsher may be harping on a point that is not key to her agenda, but she recognizes that she needs to appeal to more conservative voters if she is to kill the bill.

This is a case of the Left understanding -- for its own reasons -- why the Senate bill is a monstrosity. As I mentioned the other day, at least the left-wing has some principles, even if I disagree with those principles. The right-wing and vast center-right have principles, with which I agree.

The only people without principles are the Democrats in the Congress who are cutting backroom deals in an unseemly, secretive process in which legislators have been legally bribed for their votes with our money.

This process has created a truncated, haphazard, pork-laden, corrupt piece of legislation which should be defeated.

[cathyf]

It reads to me like they're gathering info to restrict the ability to self insure fairly quickly after the bill goes into effect.

Interesting -- because of just who the self-insurers are.

In 2008, 89 percent of workers employed in firms with 5,000 or more employees were in self-insured plans.

In the case where we got screwed over by my husband's former self-insuring employer, that employer was the State of South Carolina. I suspect most if not all states self-insure, because they are large employers. Trying to regulate how much they reimburse providers ought to raise significant issues of federalism.

[Jane]

Legal insurrection reports Jane Hamsher has gone on Fox to attack the bill--

I saw her - it was early this morning.

She is still a bitch.

[Old Lurker]

"raise significant issues of federalism"

What a quaint notion. I don't think the federalistas could even define the concept.

[Clarice]

I hope the state's atty in So Carolina who is coordinating any state fight against the bill realizes how many states are self-insurers..That, too, would be an insteresting challenge.

[Clarice]

In one of the rare instances where the SCOTUS said no mas stretching of the commerce clause it involved wages and hours of state employees...

[Captain Hate]

Sure, Hamsher may be harping on a point that is not key to her agenda, but she recognizes that she needs to appeal to more conservative voters if she is to kill the bill.

I have more respect for Hamsher than I do Steele or McConnell. Mitch did a good job of keeping the Maine squish sisters on board and deserves credit for that, but by caving and letting the Christmas eve vote proceed earlier than he could have otherwise reveals a clueless misunderstanding of the mood of the country now compared to Hamsher. Steele just needs to go away quietly and quickly.

[Bill in AZ]

"Quinnipiac today has approval of the Reid bill at 36%. To pass such sweeping legislation in the face of such opposition is simply insane."

I suspect the sunzabitches are a couple steps ahead of everyone. They are going to pass this healthcare disaster just to pass it along with Reids unConstitutional rule changes to prevent changes. They'll get voted out in 2010 - but they are then going to poison the economy by removing the artificial supports, such as the low interest rates that Denninger talked about a couple days ago. A couple of years of 20% unemployment, along with media cheerleading will sweep the bastards back in for 2012 where we'll be happy to get back to 10-12% unemployment.

[narciso]

It's not conventional legislation, it's like a logic bomb, or in common parlance, a computer virus. I've had a little experience with that recently. It erases functions like
the task manager (profit motive), and implants
others apps, (death panels, price controls)
foreign to the system, We can also add the Goau'lds from Stargate, or any controlling
organism, like the Alien facehuggers. The only way to get rid of them, is to purge the system.

[Extraneus]

Steele just needs to go away quietly and quickly.

No kidding. Has he been all over the open primary loophole yet? If Obama runs unopposed for the Dem nomination in 2012, all Dem activists in open-primary states can and will cross over and create havoc in Republican primaries.

What more important priority could there be for the RNC than to get ahead of this? And how much time is left?

I emailed him months ago, asking what actions they were taking on this issue -- and stated that they wouldn't get a dime from me before I could understand the answer -- but my email wasn't returned.

[Rick Ballard]

A truly heartbreaking story regarding the valiant knights of Climate Scientology being terribly wounded in their jousting with the horrible CO2 Monster.

May their ultimate end be as slow and painful as is warranted by the depth and breadth of their perfidy.

Oh - and the writer of the article is the type of "journalist" who gives idiots a bad reputation.

[peter]

Jane Hamsher, just the latest in a series of enemies (blue dog congressmen, Lieberman, Nelson, etc.) upon whom we pin our hopes. I'm going to start studying the Reid bill, and see if I can get a job as a middle tier bureaucrat, if Jane Hamsher is our salvation.

[Elliott]

Now that the Senate bill is out, is there any indication as to what Harry Reid's job title will be starting Jan. 4, 2011?

[anduril]

Here's a bit of a laugher: I Was In The Room When China Purposely Ruined Copenhagen To Humiliate Obama:

Copenhagen was a disaster. That much is agreed. But the truth about what actually happened is in danger of being lost amid the spin and inevitable mutual recriminations. The truth is this: China wrecked the talks, intentionally humiliated Barack Obama, and insisted on an awful "deal" so western leaders would walk away carrying the blame.

So what knucklehead thought that the Chinese ever go into talks without a game plan--and one they've probably put more thought into than this WH is capable of? And imagine that the Chinese would want to deliberately humiliate Obama! Like, has he done anything to gain their respect? Does he still think affirmative action applies in international relations--or that the Chinese would play by liberal rules? He obviously learned nothing on his trip to the Far East.

[Rick Ballard]

Prince Harry, Earl of K Street (he'll have the office next to Daschle's)

[Extraneus]

Talk about a heartbreaker.

Carbon prices fall in wake of Copenhagen

[narciso]

Well Hamsher is much like some of those other Mujahadeen leaders in the Peshawar council,they were against the Soviets, but not in our long term best interests. Is that unduly harsh, no not after what she did to Joe Lieberman, three years ago. Her goal is to drive the bill, toward an explicit public option, not the implicit one currently in the legislation. But it's true, they know what they want, that is certainly not clear of McCain, Graham & Steele.

Now the lesson of the HMO experience, should teach us this is not going to work.
now of course, that is the difference between the common cold and bubonic plague
in scale and impact. But expanding coverage
but cutting reinbursements and not expanding
the pool of doctors

[Rick Ballard]

Extraneous,

Are the BEA's "revisions" (off by 59%) of their initial GDP numbers any better than the Climate Scientologist's "adjustments" of global temperature? I don't see any huge difference between the fraud peddled by Fenton Communications regarding the earth devouring CO2 monster and the current MSM wide "oh, the sun'll come up tomorrow" economic reporting. I keep looking at the S&P in relation to corporate tax deposits currently being down 33% (YoY). The disconnect is greater today than I ever remember seeing over the past thirty years - except, perhaps, regarding dotcom valuations just before the Bubba Bubble popped.

[Extraneus]

At the peak of tulip mania in February 1637, tulip contracts sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman.

[PD]

and the Won'd face pasted onto Mt Rushmore.

That's stunning.

Not, mind you, that one of B+'s acolytes would dream up such a thing. But that he would allow such a thing to remain on the tree.

Anyone with an ounce of modesty would order the thing removed immediately.